As promised, a quick tour of the Veritas Mk.II Sharpening System. In the video I seem to use back bevel and micro bevel interchangeably. This is a mistake and is due to doing these videos at 1am when I should be ”sawing logs,” in bed. However, here it is…

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)

Yes, you can get extra plates, extra tool holders. It’s pretty cool. It’s so similar to the worksharp. It doesn’t have that little heatsink thingy and it sharpens from the top, but the concept is basically the same. I’m having really good luck with it. I use the mk.ii honing jig with an 8000 waterstone as well.

One thing I didn’t show in the video is I have a felt wheel with it that you can charge with honing compound and put a mirror shine on the tool. I just can’t seem to find where I put it in the shop. D’OH!

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)

Pretty much, yeah. I’d say the Worksharp is the Ford Expedition to the Veritas Lincoln Navigator though. The Veritas system is quite robust and versatile, but I don’t think the worksharp is any slouch. This thing weigh’s a ton and one of it’s big points in reviews I’ve read is how true the disc runs.

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)

Well, the beauty of the system is how easy it is to use. It doesn’t have to be a long demo because the entire process is really a no brainer. If you have a really bad edge on a tool or some chipping of the steel, a spin across the coarse abrasive wheel to put the bevel back on it with an edge, then a trip through the rest of the discs to sharpen and hone it and it’s done. Total time is really just a couple of minutes.

Cheers!

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)

Hey Tom….........that was very good. Rather than sending out my jointer blades, I use an old reliable 4” Delta. I’ve been looking at the Makita G2017 Blade Sharpener. Have you tried shapening jointer blades on your system? Having used successfully the Veritas system and have an awareness of theses systems, is it possible for you to somewhat make judgements on the 2 systems? To be honest, its one thing to read about the Mikita, its another to see it in operation as you have done. I feel that, if I were to order the Makita, I would be missing important option assessories that I would need, and can’t get good decision making information. The only system carried by our local tool supplier is the Delta System; one I don’t want. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Neil, I have a nick out of a jointer blade that appeared last week. I have been pondering the same question. Though the veritas system, like the Makita holds the iron/chisel on top of a horizontally spinning abrassive (wet wheel vs dry abrasive) The veritas system does not have an attachment to grab a hold of a jointer or planar blade like the Makita does. This would leave you making an attachment (not totally out of the question I suppose) or doing them free hand. I’m not so sure free hand would work with any reliability with half the blade being pushed into the tool rest and half of it being pulled away. The Makita is a slow speed wet sharpener that would be easier to control this. Having some experience with the wet sharpeners and dry systems, I’ll be sending my jointer blades out. I’m not sure I have a lack of confidence in the systems as much as my use of them. I wouldn’t, however, buy the Veritas system for anything but chisels and plane irons. Actually, it does a pretty good job with carving tools too but you have to free hand them.

Tom

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)